Walking Forum
Main Boards => General Walking Discussion => Topic started by: gunwharfman on 17:35:31, 16/12/18
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I've had one or two over the last few years. I was walking along a flat gravelly and sandy path, on my way to Florac on the GR70, fence on my right hand side, raging rocky river on my left. Suddenly the footpath just crumbled away from under me. I have no idea to this day how I managed to grab a clump of brambles before I fell into the river, but I did and I managed to pull myself onto the path again. I was so scared and shocked I just lay there and could hardly move for some minutes! My hands were cut badly and they were painful for a couple of days but I survived!
Whilst walking towards Champex on the Tour du Mont Blanc I crossed over the top of the Fenetre d'Arpette and whilst descending over some large boulders, in an instant I slipped and luckily fell backwards, my rucksack cushioned my fall (I could have I think broken my back?) but I was only bruised and shocked. I just hit the deck and then fell and rolled to one side. If I had fallen forwards I'd be no more!
The first time I walked from Kirk Yetholm it was blistering hot and I ran out of water well before I got to Byrness! So scary, my throat was like a rasp, my thirst was overwhelming, a very scary period of time! Since then I've always made sure my water supply amount is more than good enough!
On odd occasions I've also had irrational thoughts as well, especially when crossing large boulder areas. Going up or down hasn't worried me particularly, its the horizontal crossings that starts me thinking, what if it all moved and I become part of an avalanche?
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Many years ago I had a slip after ascending a verglas slope in the Alps. I had a walking ice axe, but no crampons. I had succeeded in climbing the 45 degree slope by keeping my boots dead flat on the ice and chipping handholds. Unfortunately, once I had completed the difficult bit I relaxed and must have lifted my heels. I quickly descended with the ice axe making little impression on the hard ice or on my speed. Due to the lack of crampons, I could also use my boots as brakes and eventually brought myself to a halt in the snow. This all seemed to pass in slow motion despite taking only seconds to unfold. In the end the only damage was a gouge across my sunglasses where the ice axe hit me at the start of the fall and the lining of my mitts becoming welded to three of the knuckles of my right hand. I did not realise the latter situation until I tried to remove my mitts, in the process also losing most of the skin on the knuckles. I still have the scars nearly 30 years on. I wasn’t frightened at the time, but went into shock afterwards and was stumbling all over the place with my navigation gone to pot.
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I was taught a knee friendly descent method by an old friend, which uses gravity rather than fights it. This method looks a bit strange as the knees are kept bent and the hips flexible, a bit like a race walker. This can mean fast descents with minimal impact to the knees and is also good for loose or unstable ground, as foot contact is short and light. You do have to be careful about controlling speed and keep a good lookout for steepening slopes.
I had ascended a couple of Munros in the Glenshee area with some work colleagues. I explained that I would go ahead on the descent, as my walking method meant I would be much faster than them. I would pause at suitable points to allow them to catch up. Unfortunately, I caught my toe on a rock and this caused me to stumble forwards. It would have been better to fall flat on my face, but the trip meant that my upper body was moving faster than my legs. I accelerated to keep upright, only to be in a full on sprint down the mountain. Fearing a sticky end, I managed to veer right into some heather. Tripping over some roots, I executed a 270 degree flip to land on my back, cushioned by my full winter pack. My friends were first bemused, then worried and finally roaring with laughter.
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I was taught a knee friendly descent method by an old friend, which uses gravity rather than fights it. This method looks a bit strange as the knees are kept bent and the hips flexible, a bit like a race walker.
One I use a lot, it's a good technique O0
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The first time I walked from Kirk Yetholm it was blistering hot and I ran out of water well before I got to Byrness! So scary, my throat was like a rasp, my thirst was overwhelming, a very scary period of time! Since then I've always made sure my water supply amount is more than good enough!
Strangely enough I had a scary experience going the other way, but for me due to driving rain and wind I realised I was becoming mildly hypothermic but was able to make Hen Hole hut and sort myself out. Closest I've come to danger on the hills.
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One I use a lot, it's a good technique O0
I agree it’s a great method for descent, untill you trip and fall over.
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Back in the eighties when walking the Alpine Pass route in Switzerland I was hit by storms on the third and fourth day and had to make camp at around 6000ft .After a warm start to the night the temperature dropped and the snow started.It kept snowing for around 36 hours and during the fourth night I was hit by an avalanche at 2am.A very scary experience as the tent was flattened and I had difficulty finding the zip for the door.I spent the rest of the night sleeping under rocks in the open and wondered if I would survive.My kit was up to the job,at least in terms of keeping me warm and dry and by morning the snow had stopped and I managed to fight my way to lower ground.The next day in the Klausen Pass I saw a car destroyed by a minor avalanche,very similar in size to the one that hit my tent.The rest of the walk was quite eventful courtesy of the bad weather but I never felt in real danger.
I have had minor accidents on other walks such as slipping on wet rocks and falling on the second day of the Pennine Way and smashing my head open.A quick clean up and dressing fixed things and I was soon on my way,albeit with a bit of a headache.Had bad hypothermia on Shunner Fell and it took four hours for the shakes to stop.Most absurd accident was on the Trail Blazer Challenge walk where I jumped off a stile at the ten mile point and broke my left ankle.I thought it was badly sprained so I decided to carry on to the finish,another 15 miles.This wasn't too bad but the fifty mile drive home was absolute hell as I had trouble operating the clutch.It was only six weeks later after having the ankle x-rayed that I found out it was broken rather than sprained.The doctor told me I had either got an extremely high pain threshold or was barking mad.
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Never had a scary moment yet walking. Have had one are two. What are you doing here moments scrambling, that really focus the mind. Plus a number of interesting hold downs, when I used to surf. One of which I later worked out was around 200 yards under water, coming up about 70 yards off a harbour wall at Arifana in Portugal, completly spent, but still enough addrenilin fortunately, to duck dive the following monster wave and eventually clear the wall.
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Many many years ago two of us were coming down from Great Gable probably on the path from Great Napes to Kern Knotts and we were crossing a large scree patch when it all shifted. I felt the path under my feet give way , everything seemed to moving around me and then I found myself 30 to 40 feet down the slope on my stomach head down hill. I lay very still for what seemed quite a while til I couldn’t hear anything more moving around me. I was covered in dirt and stones to a depth of a couple of inches up to my waist. I wriggled free and took my time creeping across the remaining scree. My mate hadn’t been caught as much as me and was sitting on the scree still above me. I have taken particular care over scree ever since.
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Had a potentially dangerous situation in the Alps once. On a blue sky, not a cloud in the sky day, climbing this mountain and was within about 2/300 ft of the summit when a French mountain guide came the other way. He advised us to descend as there was a storm coming and the mountain was evidently primarily iron oxide!
However, on such a beautiful day and so close to the top, I could not resist the urge to summit. It was only as we crested the summit that we were face to face with blackest, most evil looking cloud I had ever seen. It had been obscured by the mountain itself. We descended as fast as we could, sheltering under the eaves of a chalet as the lightening flashed around. It was quite frightening.
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I walked around the corner back to my car after a day walking on Dartmoor to a car-park near Burrator Reservoir. There were two 'yoofs' stood at my car. One of them started a swing at the rear passenger window, so I shouted and ran at them. I must have looked like a nutter, running, shouting and swearing. I punched the one stood furthest away from the car and knocked him off his feet, the one at the window looked like he was having a heart attack and legged it. His mate got up and ran to the car by the entrance, jumped in and I saw there were a total of 4 of them. The one by the window had dropped a jack handle.
I often think how differently that could have turned out. A bloke with a metal bar, 4 lads in a car, one of who I had punched to the floor, absolutely no-one else around. You have to hate adrenalin some times.
That is probably the closest 'I could have been really hurt moment' I have had that is walking related.
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He advised us to descend as there was a storm coming and the mountain was evidently primarily iron oxide!
Yes, Alpine storms can be something else. And Pyrenean.
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Broad Stand on my own. :o
Enough said.
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Walking up the lane at Rydal to start the Fairfield Horseshoe I was seconds away from being squashed by this:
(https://i.ibb.co/9vdV6gr/6-B395-ECA-E976-4-AEB-B3-F4-D475449-D6-F2-C.jpg)
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Sliding head first towards a crevasse while off piste skiing - done that. Air supply failure 40 feet underwater - done that. Control failure in a glider - done that. Caught in a flooding pothole - done that. Turning up to work with a foreign military to find that the country had mobilised overnight for real - done that (it was a tense 2 days).
But hiking, can't say I have ever had a near go just hiking. Yes I've had the odd exciting moment with thunderstorms in the mountains but no "I could have died" moments. Perhaps the nearest is meeting the milk tanker coming round the corner in a hurry in a Devon lane. Still, I have always thought I would make an attractive bonnet mascot ;) .
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Whilst running down scree fields sometimes becomes inevitable I seem to recall some skiing fall advice not to try add stop sliding by digging your boot heels in; if they grip body momentum takes you over your legs with resultant trauma, as explained try and body surf to a safer terrain.
If they fall, and are able, ski racers lift their legs up, even with skis attached, to stop leg twisting.
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`Broad Stand on my own. :o `
I took a different route to avoid that, think I saw it described as boiler plate slippery, narrow with a fall to the sea.
I do try and avoid moments when you find that adrenaline is brown and it smells.
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If they fall, and are able, ski racers lift their legs up, even with skis attached, to stop leg twisting.
My personal best is 25 feet of unmarked snow between the point where the art of skiing stopped and the science of ballistics deposited my body. I don't recall lifting my legs up though but I do remember hoping the snow by the side of the run would be soft, which it fortunately was.
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Perhaps there will be a response to this thread from the two people who were rescued from Kinder on Sunday morning at 5 am after leaving Edale for a walk on the Saturday morning at 11 am. They were hypothermic and so helicoptered to Sheffield. I live in Hayfield where the temperature was -3 on Saturday morning. I was not going out but checked the MWIS which gave a wind chill factor of -21! Source: Grough website.
Personally, I've had no life threatening experiences while walking but two when cycling - which is one reason why I cycle much less now.
Dave
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Broad Stand on my own. :o
Enough said.
Respect O0
Never climbed it. However my son and I took a look one rainy foggy day. Could not even sence it was there untill we had climbed up well past the first aid post. Then it loomed out of the merk above us. My son is a decent climber and Ienjoy a decent scarmble. We even had a rope. One long stare up onto the dank rock was enough to have us heading off to plan B up Lords Rake.
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Thanks, but the truth is I bit off more than I could chew, BuzyG - I scrambled up through the crack and traversed across to the sloping platform, with a huge drop beneath me, and spent what seemed like ages there, contemplating the polished wall in front of me, too scared to go back...
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A 300 ft free fall down a snowfield under the Dent du Requin, flashbacks which I can still playback in my mind 54.5 years later. Then a traumatic moment of hurried excavation to create ledge on the steepest piece of snow ever imaginable and the thank god moments for hours spent practicing ice axe arrests before the impact of the sheer drop to the glacier below sank in.
Nothing to be proud of because youthful foolhardiness and lack of experience put us in a position we should not have been in. Having sat in many climbing pubs and listened to so many of these types experiences being related, I have wondered if they are told to impress or warn others.
In the Pen y Gurig on night I recall sitting with a group I had climbed with for some years, a nearby group were relating tale about the 1963 winter, when Bill's Barn was nearly completely covered with a snow drift and a tunnel of 10-15ft had been made from the top half of the barn door for a way in and out. The privy was some distance away across an open space. A totally naked climber had gone out for relief in the early hours and could not find his way back in. Much relish was expressed how they had save his life from hypothermia, the onset of frostbite and other unimaginable conditions.
This was listened to with great amusement by my group of friends, as they knew that they were sitting with that climber. He habitually slept in the raw in a Black's Polar sleeping bag, the beery flush of several hours carousing in Bethesda was the reason for not joining the cattle at the other end of the barn and taking the Eskimos' route out too the privy, which was all frozen up and serving no purpose. Then the overpowering and breathtaking view of the Carnedds and Tryfan with a backdrop of a clear star panorama was enough to take time to stand and stare. A full moon over Bill's farmhouse was enough to shroud the snow covered barn in pitch black, a desperate holler was required to get a torch shone from within.
All those in the barn saw was a lightning flash of naked flesh then a Black's Polar sleeping bag imitating a sackfull of ferrets and not the tale of drama of near Scot of the Antarctic proportions being related by that nearby group.
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Not really and apologies for going slightly off topic, but I have a particular nightmare that occasionally seems to re-surface (and gets re-dreamed), which involves falling down a steep ridge/scree slope with a very long drop through rocks and being unable to stop .... As these things tend to be, it is quite realistic at the time and the fall is in slow motion.
The location could either be imagined or possibly Great Hell Gate (Gable).
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Posting as Slogger.Too many to write about, from Hypothermia, Vertical fall (Ben Nevis path) Falling rock in Lords Rake, Stranded in nightime blizzard on Cheviots, if youve never had one , you are not trying hard enough! :o
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Had rather too many near death experiences in the military and a few more whilst driving for a living but I think it's best to draw a vial over those. When I was younger I was more into climbing than walking especially Alpine style climbs, I had one or two frights but nothing life threatening. Never had anything while out walking, but then again. Last week I was out walking quite near home when I came across the local mountain rescue team attending man who'd simply slipped on some wet rocks and landed on his head, he ended up with a depressed fracture of the scull. Quite frightening really.
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Whist not having any such experiences when hiking,when a lot younger my obsession was rock climbing,(stopped by a bad fall, which got me back into hiking !! ), it was only considered a good days climbing if at some point you thought there was a possibility of serious injury or death. Luckily i only damaged my knees, lol :) I still miss climbing but just not possible :(
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Posting as Slogger.Too many to write about, from Hypothermia, Vertical fall (Ben Nevis path) Falling rock in Lords Rake, Stranded in nigh time blizzard on Cheviots, if you've never had one , you are not trying hard enough! :o
Reminds me of "If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space.” I am taking up too much space and not just my weight! ;D
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I came across the local mountain rescue team attending man who'd simply slipped on some wet rocks and landed on his head, he ended up with a depressed fracture of the scull. Quite frightening really.
Something which shook me up was when I was walking down a very steep field at quite a speed. The front of my boot got caught on one end of a stout stick hidden in the grass while the other end got jammed in the ground. I was then catapulted through the air, my arms and walking poles got tangled together and I came down head first in nothing more harmful than sheep poo. But it could so easily have been a rock which made me think. The slightest slip or trip could so often be serious but 99.9% of the time we are OK.
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I nearly croaked when pleb put his hand in his pocket and bought a pint ;D
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I nearly croaked when pleb put his hand in his pocket and bought a pint ;D
And this could also be posted in the; "What's the strangest things you've witnessed on a walk" thread. Two for the price of one :o
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And this could also be posted in the "strangest thing you've seen on a walk" thread. Two for the price of one :o
;D ;D ;D
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;D ;D ;D
Ha ha ... I changed it while you were posting back O0
I should clarify my "two for the price of one" comment - a) because two posts relate to one event, and b) two strange things on a walk - first of which being pleb himself and secondly him dipping his hand into his pocket.
Apologies pleb - not that I know about any of this personally, it's just based on beefy's musings ::)
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Several. I prefer to call them learning experiences.
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Not sure it was a "Could have died" moment, but my 20 minute spa treatment in the Pewits last year certainly scared the begorrah out of me. As mananddog says, a learning experience.
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This is an interesting thread. I recently picked up a book by Hugh Maslen Jones "Countdown to Rescue" published in the 1980s. It recounts numerous tragic incidents during his time as a member of the Llanberis MRT. It should be compulsory reading for all those contemplating winter walking on Snowdon. I say winter but as the tales of woe report - you can get atrocious weather on Snowdon at any time of the year. The author was an early adopter of search and rescue dogs and numerous reports show their value in searches over large areas. Of course the technology available then predates mobile phones and SARLOC etc.
When I started hillwaking about 9 years ago, the group was led by a member of the Kinder MRT. At the October post-walk drink, he went through with us the contents of his rucksack and asked us to get properly equipped with survival bag, and head torch etc. I've manged to avoid using the head torch, so far.
Dave
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Just to follow up my previous post - you can find the above book and other on Amazon. Maslen Jones is/was ex-army and saw active service in the far east.
Dave
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I think you mean Bob Maslen Jones, sadly now passed away. He wrote “Countdown to Rescue” and “A Perilous Playground”, both good reads mainly Snowdonia based, about Mountain Rescue, Sarda and loads of incidents and accidents in the mountains going way back O0